Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Is Autopilot that much better than Competitors?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I watched an interview with Elon and a CBS correspondent during the event and reporter asked (paraphrasing) "you have this autopilot feature but merc/audi etc has had it for years now". Elon admitted that Tesla had to play catch at first but their autopilot technology has "leapfrogged" Tesla's rivals. Is the autopilot that much ahead of everyone else? From what I've seen from videos it seems Tesla's is better, but not definitively leaps ahead, or am I missing something?
 
What will be released next month will be similar...but they claim to have more advanced capability that hasn't been released yet.

The huge advantage is that this can be released via software update instead of waiting for new model year cars.

Given Tesla's Silicon Valley roots and Google connections, I have no doubt that behind the scenes they are further along.
 
no other car, that i know of, steers itself. it will correct you with Lane Keep Assist. but that's different. with Tesla's Autopilot, you'll be able to set cruise and it will steer itself down the road, no matter how curvy.

that is not available from anyone else, tho correct me if i'm wrong.
 
Also I don't think any other car company can use the phone to contact your car to drive it self to get you and put it self in the garage automatically

Probably you have not seen these:



Love the Tesla concept, but they have a long way to go befor they catch up with the Germans in driver assist gizmos. Before autopark I would like to see simple things like the birds eye view and guiding lines for reverse..... I sure will miss those when I change my BMW with Tesla next month. Just sayin.....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah the Mercedes system can drive itself. I can't find the video of the guy who taped a pop can onto the steering wheel to fool it into thinking their hands were on the wheel, but you get the idea.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lgfkbPNS60k

I do look forward to the car parking and unparking itself.

-m
 
Just keep in mind that this is a new product like the D for Tesla. There are going to be issues and probably a lot of them. The issues if any will be worked out within a year so those of use that have the new features and or a D on the way need to be patient with Tesla.
 
Yeah the Mercedes system can drive itself. I can't find the video of the guy who taped a pop can onto the steering wheel to fool it into thinking their hands were on the wheel, but you get the idea.


Self-Driving Cars Are Here Watch the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E Class Drive Itself - YouTube

I do look forward to the car parking and unparking itself.

-m

Actually, you saying that jogged my memory--Ford's introducing a similar system on the '15 Edge, though it sounds like it may not be quite as advanced in terms of driving to you over any amount of distance.


2015 Ford Edge Can Park and Unpark Itself AutoGuide.com News

Ford Debuting Self-Unparking Technology In 2015 Edge - The Truth About Cars
 
There was a detailed discussion about this on the Tesla Motors forum and the consensus among some was that with the lack of rear and side radar whatever Tesla can activate with the current sensor array via software is limited.

The Mercedes system uses two different types of rear and side radar. The sensor array Tesla has implemented is only aware of 16 feet around the car but based on a graphic on the thread below the Mercedes system can sense traffic behind the car at up to 260 feet away. IMHO the autopilot abilities they can activate via software will only be as good as the sensor array and without rear and side radar the Tesla sensor array is not as advanced as what Mercedes offers.

http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/theoretical-capability-auto-pilot
 
At the end of the CBS interview when Elon said "we've leapfrogged our competitors" w/autopilot, he gave that "well obviously we're better" look we've all seen. Its the same look that he gives when asked to compare spacex's dragon2 to boeing's CST capsule for example. Elon is usually right about these things, but from what I've seen of mercedes and audis autodrive feature I wonder what Elon exactly knows for him to say that Tesla is way ahead in this department.
 
Tesla's all-electric platform and digital control makes it a better candidate for driving automation. Other manufacturers have to double the complexity of their vehicles to achieve similar functions because they're starting with mechanical systems and adding servos and actuators to allow electronic control. Even before Tesla's Autopilot, you could easily see this difference in the Models S cruise control vs. other brands. Tesla's cruise control has considerably faster response time, and its regenerative braking keeps the speed locked in, even on downhills.
 
Last edited:
no other car, that i know of, steers itself. it will correct you with Lane Keep Assist. but that's different. with Tesla's Autopilot, you'll be able to set cruise and it will steer itself down the road, no matter how curvy.

that is not available from anyone else, tho correct me if i'm wrong.

Really? I suggest you put the Tesla on a narrow and twisting alpine back road and I'll be happy to see the results.

The systems available e.g. for the Mercedes S-Class are more likely restricted in their abilities for legal rather than for technological reasons. As to the feature of the car going off to park itself and to return when called - I'm sure that it's just a huge lawsuit waiting to happen. How many people will really put it to use at home rather than to call the car when it's pouring down and they don't want to cross a public parking lot in such conditions?

BTW, is Tesla's technology its own or do they get it from some supplier?
 
Sorry, but if you really need or want your car to park and unpark itself, you are missing the point of owning an automobile. I love driving and want nothing to do with it handling those functions myself.

I love the driving experience, everything about it. If you automate any of that it would be like playing a game of baseball and having the bat swing itself for you. No thanks.
 
Tesla's cruise control has considerably faster response time, and its regenerative braking keeps the speed locked in even on downhills.

How good is that last feature you mentioned? I don't have my Model S yet, but during my test drive I found that after setting the cruise control, a steep downhill caused the car to accelerate - it wasn't able to regen enough to keep the speed steady. Have you tested it on steep downhills?
 
without being able to use it, it's hard to compare, but it does sort of feel similar to Apple proclaiming huge tech advances for stuff that Android/Google had been doing for years.

The reason Apple has become the largest company in the world and has the highest customer satisfaction in their products is precisely because they took things that people were doing for years and made them so much better that people wanted to use them. Nobody really invents any technology these days, they just make improvements and eventually somebody comes along with something so much better that people associate it with the first "modern" version of the thing.

It remains to be seen how well the Tesla autopilot features work and how they compare but from an engineering standpoint just look at how far the playing field is tilted towards Tesla on this:
Tesla has added these features while *removing* vast systems of complexity from the car. The electromechanical braking should be faster, more precise, natively electronically controllable as opposed to layering on servos on top of mechanical braking systems on top of hydraulic braking systems. The steering is (we believe) an all electric rack & pinion system as opposed to layering on more mechanical and hydraulic systems. And the car can be continually updated over the air to make these systems better and better as more is learned. Adding these autopilot systems to ICE / mechanical / hydraulic cars just seems like it will be unsustainably costly and complex and perform so much more poorly than the Tesla that it won't be able to compete.
 
The electromechanical braking wasn't developed by Tesla, though--it was developed by Bosch. Which is not a criticism, it's just a reality check. And it still layers servos on top of hydraulic braking systems.

Lots of companies--indeed, probably every company--are using electric power steering without a hydraulic component.

Honestly, I know a lot of people are really excited about autopilot, but this doesn't strike me as something that Tesla can disrupt, the way that it is disrupting so many other things. The hardware, software, and overall functionality of autopilot is going to be common across the industry within a few years. There's no reason to think Tesla will be better at doing this than Mercedes or Ford.

I view trying to compete in this space as a bit of a distraction. Tesla's core mission (and competency, and competitive differentiator, is its EV knowledge (and supercharger infrastructure). They have to have driver assist to keep up with the other companies, but any time they spend on that that takes away from BEV and SpC development is, in my mind, a waste.